If you know someone considering flight training, here's an article that will likely be very helpful to them. Please pass it along: https://groundschool.com/articles/choosing-your-flight-instructor
I actually used the ‘find an instructor’ link on the gold seal website when I was looking for a double II. Couple of outdated references but overall a good list and very helpful. Thanks Russ!
Yeah, instructors are quick to join, but not so quick to keep their contact info current. We do email sweeps on occasion trying to keep the list current, but it's a tough job!
The link was good, but finding an independent CFI with an aircraft or access to a rental for primary training will be a challenge for many folks.
Agreed. An independent must have access to aircraft. But I suspect the vast majority of instructors in the "Find a CFI" list either work at a flight school or do have access to rental airplanes.
I think it might be interesting if there was a way in a directory like that to determine what sort of 'actual' experience an instructor has... What I mean is things like actual weather flying. I've flown with a lot of instructors over the years, that while great for basics, teaching theory, etc.... don't have the experience themselves or are just not inclined to help a student really experience real situation flying....to help a student or BFR pilot get better at making go or no-go decisions
Denver is extremely busy feeding airlines. To be more specific, finding instructors who aren’t fully booked for months, have a schedule that matches yours with their day job to earn a living in a city with a housing cost pushing the average underside of three quarters of a million bucks, aren’t leaving instructing for a real paying flight job soon, and are actually good at it.... AND also at least somewhat match your personal learning style... is fairly rough and has been for a while now. One way to do this was to be willing to spend more on long established places with low instructor turnover but at least one is now gone due to instructor ages and health issues sneaking up on them. Happens. With proper insurance as high as it is for independents, it’s a labor of love to burn every weekend to pay for the insurance to cover the assets earned at the day job. If one has even half the self preservation skills on the ground as we teach people to exercise in the air. Helpful? Denver is spendy. That’s the real bottom line... they’re predicting 8 million in the Front Range this year. Same number of flight clubs and approximately the same fleet sizes as when I started in 1991. Slightly larger but way more students.
